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My first model 3 experience - not so good.

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F

FatMoop

New Member
Apr 6, 2021
3
3
East Peoria
#1
Just became a 'member of the family' and wanted to ask what your experience has been with Tesla service and overall competency of the company. Bought a model 3, Long range, no FSD.

  • Less than 10 miles on the odo - Brought it back to the salesman and asked why none of the autopilot / cruise control worked. They weren't sure, a few of the salesmen looked at it and thought maybe a recent update was why the 'cameras still calibrating' message was removed. They recommended giving it a few days
  • Issue didn't clear up, earliest time slot at the shop was a week away. So I drove a week with no cruise control. That's a pain on a car i'm unfamiliar with, and a car that doesn't make engine noise.
  • My appointment was cancelled because they couldn't read the first sentence from my issue "autopilot and cruise control do not work, have never worked", and they cancelled my appt without discussing it with me. Luckly i caught it in a few hours and my time slot was still free... Never did get a call back from the service dept.
  • Car remotely diagnosed as having a faulty front camera array.
  • We're on round 3 of parts as they've either errored on the diagnosis or ordered wrong parts.
  • Oh and the loaner Y has 'regenerative braking issues' message pop up, is this why it's brake checking when stopping on certain autopilot cases? ugh
My main complaint as an engineer is: So i bought a car that had active issues (codes) due to a camera not functional. The car didn't tell me the camera was faulty, why? Who the hell in tesla's enginering thought it was acceptable that if a camera fails, the car won't even have functional cruise control?

From an experience point of view: I'm not upset that the car has issues straight from the factory. I'm in engineering, *sugar* happens, i get it. I'm upset that the car knew there were problems and didn't tell me while i was testing it before accepting delivery. I'm upset that tesla has screwed up on virtually every step of the process to get it fixed.

Finally, does tesla offer reimbursement for screw ups like this who should i talk to and what to expect? This has been a dream car for a while for me and i want tesla to succeed.
 
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#2
Yeah that's garbage. I'm sure there is a pre-delivery inspection that the cars should go through, and with a car as advanced as this I would assume every system is checked automatically. The reason cruise/auto pilot doesn't work without the cameras is because the front array is used for lane keep and I believe the stereoscopic bit is actually used for forward collision/distance calculation to some degree. They have a near and long range radar system in the front bumper but based on the latest tweets from Elon, the goal is to transition completely to cameras for that purpose.

My experience has been pretty great overall. I bought a CPO M3 from Tesla in another state and drove it home. There were a few VERY minor paint issues, plus my spoiler was coming unglued on the edges. I ended up having two service appointments and both went very smoothly. For the first I just waited while they replaced the entire spoiler for me, the second they ended up keeping the car for a few days and repaiting one of the doors completely (unheard of for a CPO car with a minor knick in the paint, so I was thrilled). During this time I got a loaner model 3. It was a bit beat up, and a little dirty, but functioned properly. My biggest complaint was that the loaner was locked in Chill Mode. Coming from a Model 3 Performance, to a RWD LR in Chill was a bit of a drag. Needless to say, I was happy to get my car back.

I did have a lot of issues with one sales rep in particular during the purchase of my car, and subsequently trying to get my title and plates - but every single other person within the organization has been great to work with. My guess is that you're getting a bit of bad luck with who you're dealing with. Plus, they're still fairly young and going through growing pains as they scale so dramatically.

To answer your other question - I have heard of people that receive a discount when their new car is delayed at the last minute. Not sure who they spoke with, but it's at least worth asking. You could try running it up the ladder and asking to speak with the manager of the service center. At the very least it may help get this resolved faster for you.

Oh and congrats on the purchase! I assure you that once these problems are resolved you're going to love it!
 
#4
Curious. When you attempted to activate cruise, you only pressed the right stalk down once, correct? That’s simple radar aware cruise. If you press it down twice, that’s traffic aware cruise plus lane keep. I could see it erroring on a double stalk press but, like you, would expect it to work with a single press.
Also, did you have emergency braking enabled? That’s another feature that requires the camera and radar. But still, a few (ok maybe more than a few) line of course would proved better user feedback.
 
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#5
jmaddr said:
Curious. When you attempted to activate cruise, you only pressed the right stalk down once, correct? That’s simple radar aware cruise. If you press it down twice, that’s traffic aware cruise plus lane keep. I could see it erroring on a double stalk press but, like you, would expect it to work with a single press.
Also, did you have emergency braking enabled? That’s another feature that requires the camera and radar. But still, a few (ok maybe more than a few) line of course would proved better user feedback.
Click to expand...
Yep. Had a salesman ride with me to make sure i'm doing it right. Car says 'cruise control unavailable'

Also car would get stuck in the low speed visualization (attached image)
 

Attachments

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    20210324_144132.jpg
    196.6 KB · Views: 141
#8
Pied said:
You need to drive minimum 100 miles for the cameras to calibrate.

What reimbursement are you expecting? Honda never reimbursed anything to my parents when their transmission exploded in the first 2 weeks.
Click to expand...

I would challenge your first statement of "you need to drive 100 miles for the cameras to calibrate", as that has not been my experience. when I got my car in 2018, it had Hw 2.5, and the pick up location is 45 miles from my home. The camera calibration completed less than halfway to my home, about 20 miles).

When I got the HW 3.0 upgrade because I have FSD, the experience was similar, less than 20 miles to calibrate.

Now, the type of roads may matter, the drive I was doing was on a california freeway. If you drive on roads with no lines, it may take longer, but that blanket statement makes it sound like someone should expect it to take that long all the time, and thats not correct.

Now, back to OP, that blows, it sucks when you have a new car and something doesnt work out of the factory.
 
#10
There is no excuse for this. A camera problem is something the computers can detect themselves, it requires no human intervention. If a hardware problem is detected it should have notified Tesla itself and they should have contacted you to setup a service appointment. In this particular case it should have been detected and fixed before the car was delivered to you. Service seems to be Tesla's weak area, it may be that their growth rate has been so quick that they just haven't been able to upgrade their service system to handle the growth in demand.
 
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#12
charlieaf92 said:
Yeah that's garbage. I'm sure there is a pre-delivery inspection that the cars should go through, and with a car as advanced as this I would assume every system is checked automatically. The reason cruise/auto pilot doesn't work without the cameras is because the front array is used for lane keep and I believe the stereoscopic bit is actually used for forward collision/distance calculation to some degree. They have a near and long range radar system in the front bumper but based on the latest tweets from Elon, the goal is to transition completely to cameras for that purpose.

My experience has been pretty great overall. I bought a CPO M3 from Tesla in another state and drove it home. There were a few VERY minor paint issues, plus my spoiler was coming unglued on the edges. I ended up having two service appointments and both went very smoothly. For the first I just waited while they replaced the entire spoiler for me, the second they ended up keeping the car for a few days and repaiting one of the doors completely (unheard of for a CPO car with a minor knick in the paint, so I was thrilled). During this time I got a loaner model 3. It was a bit beat up, and a little dirty, but functioned properly. My biggest complaint was that the loaner was locked in Chill Mode. Coming from a Model 3 Performance, to a RWD LR in Chill was a bit of a drag. Needless to say, I was happy to get my car back.

I did have a lot of issues with one sales rep in particular during the purchase of my car, and subsequently trying to get my title and plates - but every single other person within the organization has been great to work with. My guess is that you're getting a bit of bad luck with who you're dealing with. Plus, they're still fairly young and going through growing pains as they scale so dramatically.

To answer your other question - I have heard of people that receive a discount when their new car is delayed at the last minute. Not sure who they spoke with, but it's at least worth asking. You could try running it up the ladder and asking to speak with the manager of the service center. At the very least it may help get this resolved faster for you.

Oh and congrats on the purchase! I assure you that once these problems are resolved you're going to love it!
Click to expand...

I can't edit my original post, but since someone has reached out to clarify which Rep / Service Center I had an issue with I figured I'd share. The only poor service I've received from from Lexi at the Tampa Service Center. After speaking with her once on the phone she never returned any of my calls or followed through. I eventually got an email from her about 8 weeks after I bought my car stating that I needed to fill out more paperwork (still hadn't received the title). I promptly completed it and checked the box to have my current license plate transferred. Finally after about 11 weeks from purchase, I received my title and new plates despite requesting they transfer. I emailed Lexi asking for help resolving the issue (again no response - ever). Ended up making 3 separate trips to the DMV to fix what I assume was her screw up.
 
#14
For all the "did you drive it enough to calibrate?" Yes. I had ~350 miles on the car. I reset the calibrations after 150miles and tried everything they suggested (touch screen reboot, let it sit for a while). It wouldn't be sitting in the shop for almost a week now if that were the case.

Call from today: "We'll be done tomorrow morning. Pick it up at your earliest convenience". I asked, "So you have the part and you can confirm the camera is working and calibrations are good?" Response "Well no, we should get the part today 4pm". I asked them to confirm calibrations are good before i drive 2 hours to find out whether I have the same issue again. She's going to talk to sr service techs or engineering...
 
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#15
While any problem is frustrating, none of those items would fall into my "big issue" bucket and I definitely wouldn't feel entitled to reimbursement because there were some minor warranty items to address. I guess it varies by a person's overall philosophy in these situations. Mine is that if any problems get resolved and my overall experience is supremely positive then I'm happy. There have definitely been some quality and service horror stories shared that are truly terribly. This doesn't sound like one of those at all.
 
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#16
Engineers are the absolute worst customers. They think they know everything, but have no first hand knowledge of how anything works in reality.

Just remember, it’s a car, built by humans. It’s not perfect, things will fail. Give them a chance to fix it, it might take a few times. It’s small potatoes.

and at the end of the day, it’s just a mode of transportation that will end up in a junkyard some day.
 
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#17
My last three cars were top trim levels and purchased new - Honda, Subaru and a Mazda CX5. All had plenty of bells and whistles. Not one of them, ever, went back to the dealer for a warranty problem - not once! All the panels, paint, cruise control, seats, engine etc, all perfect. Tesla has been building cars for enough time to perfect the product. This forum should not have so many complaints by new owners. Tesla needs to slow down production and deliver a car with a reputation for perfection. As for engineers, I like how they can key in on issues regardless of their field of expertise.
 
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#20
FatMoop said:
For all the "did you drive it enough to calibrate?" Yes. I had ~350 miles on the car. I reset the calibrations after 150miles and tried everything they suggested (touch screen reboot, let it sit for a while). It wouldn't be sitting in the shop for almost a week now if that were the case.

Call from today: "We'll be done tomorrow morning. Pick it up at your earliest convenience". I asked, "So you have the part and you can confirm the camera is working and calibrations are good?" Response "Well no, we should get the part today 4pm". I asked them to confirm calibrations are good before i drive 2 hours to find out whether I have the same issue again. She's going to talk to sr service techs or engineering...
Click to expand...

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